by Diego Morra
It is absolutely strange for Batangas Rep. Rep. Leandro Leviste to accuse Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon of profiting from a P150-million insertion for public projects in his district for 2025, with the budget approved in 2024. Leviste must be following in the footsteps of his father, an amateur magician in Greenhills and the head of the Leviste political dynasty in Batangas. Of course, the father was convicted of killing his subaltern by like other prisoners close to the powers-that-be, got pardoned.
The younger Leviste was challenged by Ridon, a former Kabataan lawmaker, to pout his money where mouth is and produce the documents that implicated him in infrastructure shenanigans. Ridon, a lawyer, used to head InfraWatch and worked for a time at ABS-CBN. His is a case of the ailment that the late Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, suffered—dontopedalogy, which the royal in a self-deprecating fashion, defined as “the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it.” The royal was noted for his gaffes, irrelevant and insensitive remarks and well-publicized blunders. Yet, he was never a member of the British Parliament while Rep. Leviste is an outstanding member of the House of Representatives, he might better serve the commonweal standing outside of the legislature.
With his latest caper, Leviste joins the suspended Dasmarinas City Rep. Kiko Barzaga in the Meow Squad of attention deficient and media hogging lawmakers ready to pounce on their colleagues to better serve their principals. Earlier, Leviste accused a DPWH engineer of trying to bribe him with P3.1-million and slammed a political enemy of being close to yet another colleague who owned a construction company. In the latest edition of his political drama, Leviste slammed Ridon for concentrating on the investigation of the dolomite beach in Manila, quoting Ridon as blaming the perpetrators of the environmental crime for flooding in Metro Manila. Weirdly, this project was designed purportedly to improve the mental health of Metro Manila residents.
During the Noynoy administration, Sen. Loren Legarda tagged the planned dredging of Laguna de Bay as deleterious to the environment and would cause flooding, a hilarious claim since dredging the lake with an average depth of 2.5 meters would increase its water holding capacity. This probably explains why the younger Leviste is not so keen on inquiring into the mess created by the 34 reclamation projects affecting more than 20,000 hectares that would be stolen from Manila Bay and block the waterways that collect floodwaters in the National Capital Region (NCR) that drain into the bay, impeded the flow of floodwaters in both Bulacan and Pampanga and drove away the few fish species that inhabit the polluted waters from Cavite to Bataan.
Many have suggested that both mother and son read some more since it would do them good and possibly improve their expertise in statutory construction. Politiko has already reported that the Leviste beef against Ridon was a nothingburger since it was impossible for the Bicol Saro lawmaker to insert P150-million into the 2025 budget since he was elected only in the May 2025 elections and took his seat on June 30, 2025. Not content with the wrong allegation, Leviste now wants Ridon to resign as chairman of the House public accounts panel. Two wrongs don’t make a right. However, the younger Leviste must have been so enamored by magic tricks and legerdemain that he is now practicing such little learning in country’s biggest hall of magic—Congress.
The younger Leviste claimed that the late resigned DPWH undersecretary Cathy Cabral “gave” him the documents confirming the P150-milliion in “allocable” funds for infra projects per congressional district. DPWH personnel tell a different story, claiming instead that the eager-beaver Leviste “grabbed” the documents from Cabral while security personnel at the department said they did not notice Leviste taking out reams of documents out of DPWH and instead claimed the congressman brought in six boxes of pizzas. In short, there is serious doubt about the Leviste claims. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, whose Senate committee is investigating the flood control scam, want none of the dribs-and-drabs approach to information management by Leviste, echoing the skepticism of Ridon.
Lacson also challenged Leviste, who made hay with his underwhelming solar projects in SPNEC while the mother held the fort on Senate committees concerned with renewable energy and environmental protection, to just release whatever document he has since his own Senate staff apparently had possession of the very documents that Leviste fancied would rock Congress down to its very foundations. Talk of overestimating one’s “galing” and it fits Leviste to a tee. Tubog sa tingga ang bata, a grizzled Congress veteran roared. Why did the House of Representatives suddenly got populated by members with suspected attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? Fear of missing out (FOMO) and not being part of the action appears to be one reason for the itch to be front and center of the action.
Yet, others are also itching to slam the mother-and-son for what they claim to be their own campaign to secure ”allocable funds” for Batangas and Antique to the tune of P3-billion which ousted DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan reportedly rejected, preferring not to fiddle with the National Expenditure Plan (NEP) approved by the plenary. This issue has already been raised and the public want both Loren and son Leandro to clarify the matter. Those in the energy sector may also want to dwell on the non-performance of Leandro’s much-touted solar energy projects that promised thousands of gigawatts of electricity that never materialized. The Philippines will never progress when its leaders thrive on hype and its plutocrats profit from rentier capitalism and thrive not on the actual production but on the proceeds of speculation and the proceeds of money market placements.
